Ben Sachs, Vail Kohnert-Yount and Jared Odessky Recognize the Positive Impact of Participation in the Harvard Graduate Student Union

Ben Sachs (’99), Professor of Labor and Industry at Harvard Law School, Vail Kohnert-Yount (’20), current Fellow with Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, and Jared Odessky (’20), current Fellow with Legal Aid at Work, were quoted by Law360 discussing the role of the Harvard Graduate Student Union (HGSU) in providing early career experience and preparation for workplace advocacy (“Workplace Activists Build Mettle At Harvard’s Grad Union,” Mar. 16). Vail noted, “It gave me an opportunity to realize how [you] work together as workers to run your local, how [we] make sure we’re addressing the needs of our co-workers and ourselves, what are the most important issues to fight for.” Adding that HGSU “really solidified that I wanted to work in the labor and employment space,” Jared explained, “Most people in law school did not have a lot of exposure to the labor movement at all. . . .We began talking to a lot of people, some of whom later became graduate union activists, and others who I think just developed an appreciation for labor issues.” “My sense is that participation in the graduate student union has been an incredibly important and formative experience for a lot of those students,” said Ben.

BACK TO TOP